This invention concerns circular machines for knitwear and hosiery, and refers especially to a device for raising a knitted item after it has been made, when it is taken from the needles and transferred by handling it out of the machine, for example to be able to effect the toe closing operation in the case of socks.
Some circular machines for knitwear and hosiery employed for making knitted items to be taken and transferred out of the machine for successive complementary operations are equipped inside with a cylinder and a tube with summit flaring to receive the item as it being made by the needles. The tube can move vertically inside the cylinder to raise the item once finished, according to need, so that it can be taken close to the needles, taken off and removed above the cylinder with a suitable and known handling device. The flaring of the lifting pipe extends partially above the internal guide crown of the sinkers but cannot come close to the needles so as not to interfere with the sinkers when these are moving radially. In other words, the flared part of the pipe always remains at a distance from the needles and the closest part of the knitted item does not find any support on the pipe flaring. In this condition, when the tube is raised up it cannot completely and reliably raise the item so that it can be correctly and securely taken by the transfer device.
The purpose of this invention is therefore to provide a circular machine for knitwear and hosiery in which the operation of lifting the knitted item always takes place correctly and securely.
Another purpose of the invention is of offering a circular machine in which the knitted item is lifted from the knitting formation plane also by its parts closest to the needles for reliable picking.
These purposes are achieved in a circular machine with a lifting device for the knitted item which includes a lifting pipe located in the cylinder, rotating together with this, adjustable in height and fitted with a summit bell with a flared lip which extends above the internal small sinker crown, as far as the circumference of the needles and which is provided with radial slits corresponding to the sinkers.
Such a system permits the knitted item to rest on the flaring of the bell, while the knitted item is knitted and to be raised on completion, especially in at a part of the knitted item closest to the needles. On the other hand, the radial slits of the bell""s flared lip permit correct sinker movement, avoiding interference with the sinkers.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which preferred embodiments of the invention are illustrated.